Despite the much-ballyhooed arrival of LeBron James and Kevin Love, point guard Kyrie Irving will be taking on the sole responsibility of handling the ball and getting everyone on track.
For the past three years, Irving was forced to carry a large share of the scoring on some mediocre Cavalier teams, is now ready to move forward and assert himself into the conversation of being one of the best point guards in the league.
While other point guards such as Chris Paul, Derrick Williams, Stephen Curry, John Wall and Derrick Rose tend to get more attention, Irving did make the All-Star team in back-to-back years and earned MVP honors in last year’s game. Irving finished the 2013-14 season shooting at a career-low .430 from the field and .358 on 3-pointers.
Now that James and Love are in the fold, Irving should now be able to work as a true point guard, and not have to shoulder so much of the scoring load.
With James, Love, Dion Waiters, Mike Miller and Shawn Marion on board, there will be no reason for Irving to dribble through his legs four times while trying to beat double and triple-teams with the shot clock winding down.
While Irving was playing with guys like James Harden, Curry and Anthony Davis in helping Team USA to the gold medal at the FIBA World Cup this summer, it really showed his abilities to dominate offensively and his tremendous play-making abilities.
One of Irving’s tasks is to improve his playmaking abilities while maintaining his offensive aggressiveness. Irving has to learn to play off the ball at times—just as James had to do with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. He also needs to improve his defense and play with and against the best in the league.
After all, Irving is playing with the one of the best players in the league in James and Cleveland will be depending on “The Big Three” to carry the Cavaliers into the first-ever NBA title.
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